One more stop and two more short stories about mighty oaks and sacred stones.
The Tauralaukis oak grove, near the bend of the Dangė River, has been growing for at least 300 years – that’s roughly how long ago it was recorded on old maps. When Klaipėda was the temporary capital of the Kingdom of Prussia for a year, 200 years ago, Queen Louise and her children would stroll along the park’s paths. On warm summer days, they would arrive by carriage or boat and enjoy their lunch under the oak trees after their walk. The Queen adored this place and compared it to the oak grove of Berlin’s Tiergarten. One oak tree in the park is still known as the Louise Oak. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a memorial stone was erected in the park to honour the Queen, but sadly, it no longer exists. Instead, the site is now home to the legendary boulder known as the Devil’s Stone (or the Tauralaukis Stone) – a sacred shrine of the Curonians who lived in this area a thousand or more years ago. On the stone’s eastern side, you’ll find a man-made offering bowl. Stones like this are commonly found in Curonian territories and are referred to as bowl stones. During the rituals on Pilsotas lands, people would pour beer, mead, or the blood of a sacrificed animal into the hollowed-out bowl, turning the site into a sacred nook – almost like a pagan temple. One version suggests that the Tauralaukis Stone is linked to the cult of Velinas, the Baltic god who rules over the realm of the dead spirits. Velinas was worshipped by pagans as a figure of balance, but with the rise of Christianity, he became associated with the devil. As a result, the Curonian sacred stone came to be known as the Devil’s Stone.